MS (Microsoft) PowerPoint is a program created by Microsoft for presentations. It is a Microsoft Office suite component that runs on Mac OS X, Apple’s and Microsoft Windows computer operating system. PowerPoint is extensively used by educators, business people, trainers and students as well as the most common persuasive technology forms. The initial version was Microsoft Office 2003 while the current ones are Windows’ Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 and Mac’s Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007.

PowerPoint presentations comprise various slides or individual pages. The analogy of the slide is in reference to a slide projector which is presently an obsolete device because of the usage of various presentation software but more so PowerPoint. Slides may possibly contain movies, graphics and various objects which may possibly be freely arranged on it. However, PowerPoint facilitates the usage of consistent presentation style using a Slide Master or a template. Presentations may be printed, navigated at the presenter’s command or displayed live on a computer. For relatively large audiences, a video projector is commonly used to project the display of the computer. Slides can additionally be used to form the webcast’s basis.

There are three sorts of movements that PowerPoint provides: on the slide, the entrance, exit and emphasis of elements is controlled by Custom Animations; movements amid the slides are referred to as transitions and are animated in various ways; custom animations may be used for creating minor story boards through the animation of pictures to move, exit or enter. Speech bubbles comprising edited text may be sent off or on in a bid of creating speech using callouts. A presentation’s overall design may be controlled using a master slide, while the general structure which extends to each slide’s text may be edited with the primitive outliner.

The ease with which the presentation software is used is capable of saving time unlike when other visual aid forms are used. Such forms of visual aids include mechanically typeset or hand-drawn slides, overhead projections and whiteboards or blackboards. Due to the use of this software as the style for PowerPoint presentations, the abilities for multimedia and animation have become relatively more sophisticated. The application has generally eased the production of presentations while the desires and needs of audiences and presenters have grown to be more noticeable. PowerPoint’s popularity in the creation of presentations for slide shows is attributed to its ability of organizing thoughts for lessons or meetings, for attractively presenting key points in live presentations and creating handouts as well.

Despite PowerPoint files being used in live presentations, the web is where they are most commonly used. Teachers may for instance use them in the organization of lesson plans or they may be used in online conference events as a link to files used in workshops and keynotes. Unfortunately, the accessibility of PowerPoint files cannot match that of HTML. Although there is a means of improving this accessibility, the PowerPoint presentation can only become truly accessible by creating an alternative HTML in addition to or instead of the PowerPoint file. Users with disabilities or other needs might probably be capable of accessing the initial PowerPoint so long as the appropriate plug-in or program is present. PowerPoint is indeed a great application that has transformed the world of making presentations.